REVIEW: Grimsby (2016)

Release Poster – Columbia Pictures

The following is a quick review of Louis Leterrier’s Grimsby.

Grimsby is the newest gross-out comedy starring Sascha Baron Cohen. Louis Leterrier – known for his work in the Transporter-franchise and with The Incredible Hulk-solo film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe – directed this action-comedy, but it won’t go on his highlight reel. Though I’m a fan of some of Cohen’s work, Grimsby goes too far.

In Grimsby, Nobby Butcher (played by Sascha Baron Cohen) is hoping to reconnect with his long-lost brother, Sebastian (played by Mark Strong). But when an eager Nobby accidentally makes Sebastian – who is now a top agent for MI6 – miss a crucial shot, and, instead, shoot a civilian, the two brothers go on the run from the authorities.

There are some pretty great laugh-out-loud moments in Grimsby, and, at times, I will say that I was having fun with the film. But at a certain point, the classic Cohen comedy overpowers the fillm and goes too far. There are truly disgusting and distasteful scenes here.

One scene almost made me vomit, and while I know that particular scene was fun for some. It became too much for me. I also found it problematic that this Sascha Baron Cohen film was having so much fun with AIDS, when he, himself, was set to play Freddie Mercury in a serious role at one point in time. These kinds of scenes left me with a bad taste in my mouth, and overpowered what I liked in Grimsby.